KNOX — A new restaurant is coming to the Hill. 
Joe’s Township Tavern will be open on Friday, Dec. 23,  for takeout in the same Township Road building in Knox that housed the former Township Tavern.

Knox native Joe Conklin purchased the building with his wife, Nadia Raza, the former owner of Curry Patta, Altamont’s now-closed Pakistani restaurant. 

The tavern will be takeout-only until the couple receive their state liquor license, Conklin told The Enterprise this week, adding that he hopes that will be within a month. 

During that period, the menu — made up of traditional tavern foods like burgers and quesadillas — will be somewhat smaller than what Conklin hopes to provide once the business is in full swing. 

“We’re getting everything going for the first time here, new kitchen crew and everything,” he said, “and some of the dine-in food we want to do, like steak, we don’t want to pack to go.”

He said it will “definitely be an open menu,” with items “changing pretty often.”

Conklin said he’s looking into delivery options, whether it be an in-house driver or through a third party, the viability of which will depend on the demand the new eatery gets. 

Noting the other Hilltown restaurants — Maple on the Lake and Babbling Brook — Conklin said he hopes that his tavern will be more than “just another bar up on the Hill.”

“We’re going to try and make it a little more like a sports bar,” he said. “When we do the dine-in, I’m hoping to have a pool table, darts, cornhole games in here. Maybe a little more on that side of entertainment. I have some other ideas for outdoor eating space and stuff, but that’s all dependent on how business goes.” 

The primary workforce is Conklin, his brother, and “another local guy,” with Raza helping out, he said. 

As for renovations or upgrades to the property, Conklin said they’re not planning anything major, and that the previous owners had “put some money into this place.”

In addition to enlarging the kitchen a bit, Conklin said they’ll “probably be updating the bathroom, and I put some new TVs in here to get more of a sports-bar feel going. Get some football playing, maybe UFC, stuff like that,” he said of the Ultimate Fighting Championship.